Rainy Day Dreams

Helloooooo everyone! I’ve got stuff to tell you about what I’ve been up to the last few months and what the upcoming posting schedule is going to look like. Spoiler alert, I’m going to heavily encourage you all to support me on Patreon.

So! Book news first! I’m almost done with the book!! Yaaaaay~~ I should be finishing lettering chapter 5 next week and then after that I just have to make a few new cover images and it’ll be done. Hopefully then it will be a quick turn around to have it proof read and sent to the printer. Though given that we are now all living an a covid-19 world of isolation and lay offs, it might not be as quick of a turn around as it might usually. Either way, pre-orders for folks who missed the Kickstarter will open probably sometime mid-May.

I had hoped to be able to start posting pages for the next chapter this month. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to also get a buffer of finished pages together in addition to book work. I’ve got a chunk of 18’s pages ready to be painted, but just haven’t gotten to them yet with everything else. My new goal is for the next chapter to start posting is sometime in June. I think this will give me enough breathing room to wrap up book things and not be rushing the new pages. What that means for the next two months is that I’ll be posting a mix of fan art, some old Patreon content, and past Top Webcomic vote incentives. I’m also planning to drop some of the updated pages for Chapter 2, the first chunk of which is live today! They start here and go to here.

I know this will probably be disappointing news for some of you. Honestly, it’s disappointing for myself because I really like being able to share new stuff with you all, but I have to do what’s going to be best for my own mental well being and what’s most fair for the people who put money into funding book 1. If you really, really want to see consistent, freshly drawn comic from me then I strongly encourage you to support me on Patreon. New pages will be going up their first, starting with the new pages of old chapters, but also including chapter 18 before it goes live on the website. It’s only $2 a month to get to see all that good stuff and support me in the process.

With the pandemic having caused the American economy (and many around the world) to have ground to a halt, if you’re in a place where you can support your favorite artists (even if they aren’t me) it’s more important you do so now than ever. It’s been harder than ever with conventions postponing until 2021 and day jobs closing down. Personally, I have been laid off since the 23rd of March. It’s been really hard emotionally worrying about if I’ll have a job to come back to once isolation has lifted (whenever that actually ends up being). It’s been really nice to have a lot of additional time I don’t usually get to work on RDD, but it would also be nice if that time translated to a safety net to keep the lights on.

I am alright currently though. I am by no means in dire straights like I know other people are right now. I’m sure that some of you reading this are also hurting and I sincerely hope things get easier for us all in the coming weeks. Take care of yourselves first. If you have an essential job and are secure, then consider doing what you can to offer security to others.

Stay safe. Stay sane. If nothing else, I’ll see you all next week with some content to hopefully make these strange times a little lighter.

-Mariah